JSE-listed real estate investment trust Liberty Two Degrees (L2D) has launched an impact campaign called #CreateTomorrow across its retail portfolio.
The company’s retail portfolio includes stakes in Sandton City, Nelson Mandela Square, Eastgate Shopping Centre, Liberty Midlands Mall and Liberty Promenade.
The campaign is part of the company’s drive to help restart the economy, since the impact of Covid-19 is having an "undeniably overwhelming" impact on the country’s socioeconomic landscape.
The company explains that the communities served by its shopping centres are at the very heart of the #CreateTomorrow campaign and it serves to support them through enriching and impactful initiatives during the Covid-19 pandemic, and calls on society to be custodians of this new chapter and unite in “building tomorrow, together”.
L2D CEO Amelia Beattie says there is no greater gift than the gift of kindness and generosity and vulnerable communities need support now more than ever.
Each shopping centre co-owned by L2D has embarked on individual impact initiatives within their respective regions.
Sandton City has partnered with the Rays of Hope charity to provide work for unemployed members of the Alexandra community, while also conducting a donation drive for winter called #WarmUpAlex and by donating funds to feed 250 families in the community.
It has also partnered with South Africa Fashion Week to sell designer masks, in solidarity with the fashion industry, where proceeds go to seamstresses, pattern-makers, designers and fashion students impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Eastgate Shopping Centre, in collaboration with its Farm District, has launched the “buy one, donate one” fresh produce box project. For every mixed box of fresh produce bought, one is donated to the centre’s local soup kitchen, adding nutrient value to the meals provided to the organisation on a daily basis.
Liberty Midlands Mall is hosting a collection drive in support of a Pietermaritzburg-based charity, the Community Chest, which enhances communities and restores hope among them. The donation drive focusses on clothes, nonperishable food and homeware.
Liberty Promenade is uplifting local organisations and schools with outreach programs to the vulnerable in the Mitchells Plein community.
Beneficiaries include Heaven’s Shelter House, which works with destitute, homeless and abused mothers and their children; Cascade Primary in Tafelsig, an education institution feeding up to 350 children in its area; and Nehemiah Call Initiative, an organisation that reaches out to vulnerable youth and adults.